Highland outlasts EA-WR to win opener

Published
12:00 am CST, Tuesday, February 25, 2014

EAST ALTON - Pat St. Peters knows one thing for sure about his East Alton-Wood River hockey team. The Oilers can play with any other Class 1A team in the league five-on-five. They showed that Monday night in a third-period rally that nearly caught Highland in the West Division finals opener.

But the Oilers had too deep a deficit to overcome and they dropped a 3-2 decision at the East Alton Ice Arena in game of the the best-of-three series, which continues at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday. The winner of the series will advance to the Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association Class 1A Finals against the East Division champion.

“We stayed out of the penalty box in the third period and we played well,” St. Peters said. “But penalties have been a problem for us all season. We’ve had too much time in the penalty box.”

Monday was no different for the Oilers, who were called for 11 penalties. Highland wasn’t far behind, though, with eight penalties.

But it was the timing of the Oilers penalties as much as the number, according to St. Peters.

“We couldn’t get anything going on offense early because we were killing penalties,” he said. “We were without (Alec) Revelle for just about the whole first period.”

Revelle was called for a minor penalty just 12 seconds into the game and had a 10-minute major tacked on. MVCHA periods are 13 minutes long.

The Oilers had most of the shots, but the Bulldogs had most of the goals.,

“We had almost twice as many shots as they did,” St. Peters said. “We showed what we can do it we play smart.”

EA-WR outshot Highland 30-18.

Highland grabbed a 1-0 lead at the 10:00 mark of the first period when Daniel Deibert scored off an assist from Shayne Korte.

That’s the way it remained until midway through the second period when Jacob Troxell scored on a slap shot from left wing to make it 2-0.

There were 11 penalties called in the second period, six against EA-WR.

The third period was a different story, however. The Oilers were called for just two penalties in the period and were able to concentrate on trying to score.

And they did.

After spotting Highland an early goal by Austin Zurleine that made it 3-0, the Oilers started a rally.

Cole Ford scored at the 10:00 mark of the period when his blast rattled off the goal post and over the goal line to make it 3-1. He was assisted by Steven White.

Less than three minutes later, the Oilers got within a goal of the Bulldogs when Tyler McHatton scored a power-play goal.

“When we’re at full strength or when we’re on a power play, we can play with most of the teams in this league,” St. Peters said. “